One of the letters that the Census Office has sent out.
~ Census: 7,650 personal records incomplete ~
PHILIPSBURG--Scores of residents, including Dutch nationals and naturalized citizens living in St. Maarten for, in many cases, decades, are frustrated and up in arms about letters received from the Department of Civil Registry (Census Office) requesting that they provide their legalised birth certificates not older than three years, within six months, or they will be unable to retrieve any product from the department.
Recipients of the letter are wondering whether the department lost their documents and some indicate that they are encountering challenges obtaining this documentation, a process that they say is time-consuming, costly and highly aggravating. “I am a Dutch citizen and have been living on St. Maarten for over 28 years now. I have dutifully provided my birth certificate and all requested documents when applying for St Maarten residency a long time ago... I should think that all the above is already proof enough that I am a legal St Maarten resident and they should accept the same birth certificate document I have already sent them,” stated one fed up resident.
Head of the Civil Registry Department Kathy Snijders has assured that the department did not lose any records, but indicated that since the Department introduced a digital system in 1997, it began asking citizens to submit their birth certificates with limited success. Snijders said a whooping 7,650 personal records in the system are incomplete and have to be updated with the document requested. “The absence of these documents not only hinders our ability to share information with other institutions, but also impacts the issuance of official documents, such as death certificates,” said Snijders.
Challenges in obtaining document
Many who received the letter expressed frustration over being faced with this abrupt request. Some elderly residents, who received the letter, don’t even know where to start looking as they have not resided in their countries for years and some have no immediate family abroad, who can assist them.
One resident who received the letter told “The Daily Herald” that the situation is agitating. The resident said since she was born in 1969 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, her birth certificate was registered at the nearest Dutch embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. She said it is therefore “extremely difficult or impossible” for her to get a “new” birth certificate document. Since receiving the Census Office letter, she attempted to obtain her birth certificate via the Dutch government, but said this also takes time to get an answer etc. “I have dutifully provided my birth certificate and all requested documents when applying for St Maarten residency a long time ago. Never have had problems renewing my St. Maarten driver’s licence, St Maarten ID, renew passport and even
receiving St Maarten voting cards, etc. etc.,” said the resident who lived here for close to three decades.
“The letter sent out by the Census Office was unsettling – requesting to provide this birth certificate not older than three years within six months otherwise [I will – Ed.] not be able to retrieve any product from their department. The letter provides no contact information, it is dated in July 3, 2024, but I received it in my mailbox by regular mail on September 23, 2024,” the resident said, adding that this issue is costing her a lot of time, a lot of money and is “extremely unnecessary” and stressful as she has to figure out how to obtain this “new” document.
“I have sent an email to Civil Registry contact I had on file due to fact I moved to a different address in St. Maarten a few years ago and this was accepted by email, but now received a reply about this ‘birth certificate letter’ that I still need to personally come in and provide a ‘new’ legalised birth certificate with apostille,” the resident stated.
“I sure hope this Civil Registry thing will be ‘solved’ for all involved.”
Request
In its letter to residents the Department said that being registered in the Basic Administration in St Maarten entails having a complete profile. This profile, the letter states, includes having information that derives from a birth certificate, passport and information from the living spouse, children and parents. “According to our records, your profile is incomplete,” the letter stated. The letter further specified that the person’s birth certificate was needed. Residents were asked to ensure that the proper legalisation is on the document and that the document is not older than three years old. The department said if the document is in a foreign language other than English or Dutch, it must be translated. Documents must also be legalised with an Apostille or be legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Embassy or Consulate. “Please note that you have six months to present this document in order to complete your profile. Should you refrain from doing such then you will not be able to retrieve any product from the department,” the letter stated.
7,650 incomplete records
When asked why residents were being asked to take in their birth certificates again, when they had already done so in the past and whether that the Civil Registry Department lost their documents, Department Head Snijders explained that the department’s digital system was introduced in 1997, and since then, it began asking citizens to submit their birth certificates, though with limited success.
Providing a historical perspective, Snijders said prior to 1997, the Department maintained a written registry to record basic updates such as address changes, emigration and immigration information. She said “no physical documents, such as birth or marriage certificates, were kept on file with this manual registry. This means that, prior to the introduction of the digital system, we relied on written entries without supporting documentation,” she said.
“To improve our records, we reached out to the Civil Affairs Departments in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba and Statia to request birth certificates for citizens born on these islands. Unfortunately, we do not have formal agreements or contacts in place to obtain birth certificates
from other countries worldwide. As a result, it remains the responsibility of the citizen to submit these documents.”
She said the department always aims to maintain complete and accurate profiles of citizens. “It is possible that some citizens may have submitted documents for specific services that were not used to update their overall profile. However, I can assure you that the majority of the individuals in question have not yet provided their legalised birth certificates. We would like to inform the public about the recent efforts of the Civil Affairs Department to clean up and update our records. During this exercise, we identified approximately 7,650 personal records that are incomplete. This means that we are missing essential documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates or death certificates, which prevents us from recording vital information, such as parental or spousal-details or the date of death,” Snijders explained.
She said the consequences of an incomplete basic administration are significant. “The absence of these documents not only hinders our ability to share information with other institutions, but also impacts the issuance of official documents, such as death certificates. These documents require parental and marital details, which are crucial for legal processes like inheritance and probate.”
She stressed that the requirement to submit a birth certificate is mandated by the National Ordinance on the Basic Administration of Personal Data and its accompanying decree.
“Since October 10, 2010, we have been working to improve and organise our administration, in line with the recommendations from the Bandel Commission (a commission that had supervision on some entities on St Maarten from 2010 to 2013, more or less to get some things in order).”
In response to the numerous requests to the Public Prosecution Service concerning the correction of records, she said the Department has analysed the personal records for which birth certificates have not been submitted. “These individuals have now been contacted with the request to provide their birth certificates. It is crucial to understand the importance and urgency of maintaining a complete and accurate basic administration and that we are committed to achieving this. We are fully aware of the reaction of the persons receiving this letter (again some of them have received such letter more than once); I don’t understand why they are receiving these letters after two months because we are sending them out immediately,” she said.
